World News Quick Take

Agencies

UNITED STATES

Texas had 500th execution

Texas marked a solemn moment in criminal justice, executing its 500th inmate since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982. Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death on Wednesday evening for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor, was also the first woman executed in the nation in nearly three years. McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and candelabra at her home in Lancaster, south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth’s finger to remove her wedding ring. It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.

ITALY

Family paralyzed by herb

A family of four was left paralyzed after the grandmother of the household accidentally garnished their pasta with a poisonous plant, media reports said on Tuesday. Carmela Messina, 66, found the poisonous herb Devil’s Trumpet in some bushes near a market. Believing it to be a bitter green broccoli variant, she took it home and planted it in her herb collection. She sprinkled it on the family’s evening spaghetti on Monday and fell ill soon afterwards, along with her husband, daughter and young grandson. They were taken to hospital and put into a medically induced coma after another family member found them collapsing and vomiting. The four are still in hospital, but doctors said they were confident the paralysis would be temporary.

NETHERLANDS

Mom frozen for week

A women kept her dead 83-year-old mother in the freezer for a week because she could not bring herself to say goodbye, police said on Wednesday. A family friend contacted police on Monday, saying they could “no longer live” with the secret of the body in the freezer. Police went to the house in Kamperland, Zeeland, and the 46-year-old daughter immediately confessed. “There was no indication that the mother didn’t die of natural causes, but the body has nevertheless been taken for an autopsy,” police spokeswoman Esther Boot said. The daughter was taken to the police station, interviewed and examined by a psychiatrist and allowed to return home. The two women had lived together for 17 years, during which time the daughter took care of her mother day and night “with lots of love,” police said. “We don’t yet know if there will be criminal proceedings, that’s up to the prosecutor,” Boot said. “Technically it’s a crime to keep a body in the freezer.”

GERMANY

Bieber’s pet moves to zoo

Mally the monkey, Justin Bieber’s former pet, has emerged from quarantine at his new home three months after the pop star brought him to the country. The six-month-old capuchin monkey on Wednesday moved into a new enclosure at the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen. Mally will soon be introduced to the zoo’s other capuchin monkeys. “Mally is a clever little guy and we’re confident that he will settle in quickly,” zoo manager Fabrizio Sepe said. Mally was transferred to the zoo last month from a Munich animal shelter where he had been since being seized by German customs on March 28. Bieber failed to produce the required vaccination and import papers after arriving for a European tour. Mally’s ownership was transferred to the German state on May 21.